


Danzleikr Eða Draumr

by LadyCera



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Angst, Attempted Murder, Canonical Character Death, Fluff and Humor, Hijack, Kidnapping, M/M, Memory Loss, Mind Control, ROTG Divergent Time Period
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-17
Packaged: 2018-03-23 09:40:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3763333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyCera/pseuds/LadyCera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Four years after Jack's death, Hiccup finds him alive on the northen continent. But things aren't the same as they were before. Jack isn't the same. And neither is he. Hiccup is unsure of whether they should or can go back to the way things were. And can they even manage to before encrouching enemies close in on them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Danzleikr Eða Draumr

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, here we go guys. First off this is going to be a long one. A slow build with three parts. The summary on the first chapter is actually the summary for the whole story. But before that, they have to be in love. and before that, they have to be friends.
> 
> Word of caution. Yes. I am going to kill Jack at the end of part one. No, Hiccup is not going to take it well, but i am going to try and make it as quick and painless as i can for everyone involved (readers, characters, and me), and Jack will be raised by the moon at the end of the same chapter he is killed in.
> 
> Inspiration and various plot points for this story taken from Quicktrick's video Dancing and the Dreaming [HiJack] (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lODPABQp694). Seriously, go check it out, it is soo beautiful.
> 
> So yea, enjoy guys. I'm not sure how good it is, but hopefully some of you like it. Let me know what you think.
> 
>  
> 
> Edit Sept. 25  
> I think I finally fixed the last of the minor errors from when I first uploaded. (I uploaded the wrong file. An in progress version) I've made some very minor changes to tags, and Alvin the Treacherous will no longer be making an appearance. I am just finishing up fixing the second chapter and I hope to have it up within the next two weeks or so. :)

Yea, we’re definitely lost,” Hiccup muttered to himself as he looked down to the ground. It had been a while since they flew clear of the fog. He was glad that he could at least see the ground. Now if only he knew where the hell they were. They were currently flying south… Or maybe west along a rock wall at the edge of a large forested area. There was a large rocky area at the base of a small cliff, with various pillars and boulders.

It seemed like a likely place for a cave, which was good. It was going to get dark soon. At least it wasn’t cold out, but he knew toothless was starting to get tired. He reached out and patted the dragon’s neck, “well, what do you think, should we try to find a cave down there for the night?”

Toothless let out a purring grumble in reply

“Yea, I know. I don’t like it much either, bud.” sleeping in a cave was never pleasant. “But we can start out early in the morning and hopefully find out where we are.” Toothless altered the angle of his wings and slowed to a hover over the rocky area, before beginning to lower to the ground.

At this point it was wishful thinking to hope they weren’t too far from home. He hadn’t seen anything remotely familiar for quite some time. He had to wonder just how far off they had gone.

And it had started out as such a promising day too. With the twins and Snotlout all insisting they had spotted a Timberjack between the borehead and crescent islands. The timberjack was one of the few dragons that appeared in the book of dragons that they hadn’t had a chance to further study since the red deaths defeat. And so they had all started out to different islands to search for it. Hiccup had gone to Tall Tree island, the furthest from Berk. However after nearly two hours of searching he was more convinced they had seen a Typhoomerang with a large wingspan.

As he had completed his search a fog had started to settle in. So he figured it was a good time to start heading home. Or at least, in the direction he thought was home. Which had apparently been wrong, and with the fog growing thicker it had been impossible to see any kind of landmark to correct their direction. That had been three hours ago, probably more to be honest. Everyone was probably worried sick by now. With good reason, really. It had been a little unnerving for a while there. Flying over an endless expanse of water, unable to spot any land, it would only have been a matter of time before toothless had become exhausted. Thankfully they eventually flew over an island, and they had set about trying to figure out where they were. But nothing looked familiar, and it had still been too foggy to spot anything in the distance. When it got to the point where they had been flying over this “island” longer than they had the water it became apparent that it wasn’t an island at all, but a larger land mass. Which begged the question, _where in Thor’s name were they!?_

He shook his head with a chuckle as toothless lowered them towards the ground. To think, if he had just mention going home when they had left Tall Tree island Toothless would have tipped him off that they were going the wrong way. But no, all he had said was, ‘let’s go bud.’ And toothless had no idea where Hiccup had been trying to take them.

Hiccup looked around with a frown as he was pulled from his thoughts. Wait, Was that, whispering? He gasped as he realized what that ment, and looked to the side to see rings of jagged teeth coming at them. Toothless saw them as well, and quickly banked to the side, almost flying right into a second whispering death. It coiled up and let out a raspy hiss. Several wing beats later and toothless was swiftly propelled backwards, Before banking to the side and gliding away from the deaths. “Ooh, that was close,” Hiccup muttered, a little too soon. As another whispering death rammed into toothless’ side, sending the dragon and his unsaddled rider rolling to the ground.

Toothless jumped back to his feet and let out a long hiss at the three whispering deaths hovering a short distance above the ground. They snarled in reply, and toothless glanced over his shoulder to where Hiccup lay motionless at the base of the rock wall. Toothless looked back and growled at the three, then quickly bounded over to Hiccup. He nudged the boy with his nose but Hiccup didn’t move. He glared back at the other three and took a defensive stance over the young viking. Two of the deaths broke away and flew around a set of pillars, attempting to approach from another direction. Toothless was having none of that and quickly shot out a plasma blast at each whispering death. They were quickly became enraged and let out grinding roars. Toothless ran to the edge of the rocky area, then looked back to the deaths. The Two were right behind him, but the third had decided to investigate Hiccup more closely.

Toothless quickly turned, ran under and past the two advancing whispering deaths, and promptly clamped down on the tail of the third. He spun around and the third death flew through the air and hit one of the stone pillars. A moment later, another attempted to latch onto toothless’ side, and he released a plasma blast at point blank range. The whispering death was thrown off him, and he had a moments notice before dodging a spiral of flame from the final one. With all three whispering deaths sufficiently furious at him, he took off into the forest. He looked back once to ensure they were following, before leading them away from the unconscious teen.

  


* * *

  


Hiccup was awakened by an odd gurgling grinding sound. As his eyes opened the sound faded. That was odd. How had his mind come up with a sound like that? He frowned up at the sky and blinked several times. The clouds overhead were lite up a fiery orange, heralding the departure of the sun. Was it dusk already? he was lying beside a rock wall of some sort, most likely the cliff. An attempt to look around shifted the gravely dirt under his head and he cringed. He raised a hand to the back of his head and hissed at the pain the contact brought. An inspection of his hand revealed a small amount of blood. That was lovely. At least it didn’t seem serious. He must have hit pretty hard when he had been thrown off toothless. How long had he been lying there? Then he heard the grinding sound again. His eyes widened with the realization that he hadn’t imagined it. He sat up and looked down at his feet to see a small baby whispering death gnawing on his metal leg.

Hiccup jumped to his feet with a shocked yell, effectively knocking the baby death away in the process. He looked around quickly and noticed several of the tiny dragons in the direct vicinity. Oh, that was not good. No wonder the three adults had attacked them. “Shoo!” He waved his arms at the one that seemed obsessed with his leg. As it rasped in response a second baby whispering death came to investigate. leaving was starting to sound like a _really_ good idea.

Hiccup started away from the cliff wall, but the two baby deaths followed him. Hiccup stopped, picked up a rock and threw it, making sure it bounced several times. It worked. As the rock bounded along the ground the sound pulled their attention. They moved to investigate the new sound and Hiccup ran for the tree line.

He rushed through the trees, hopping over the occasional fallen log or branch, and trying to keep his prosthetic leg from snagging on anything. A few minutes later and he was emerging on the other side of the trees. He looked in both directions along what seemed to be a man made road running between two sets of thick trees. Wasn’t much of a road, really. Just a wide area where trees had been cleared away, with wagon wheel ruts running along the center. He took a moment to catch his breath and glanced back to the trees. Thankfully there was no sign of the three hatchlings. He sighed in relief.

Alright, now he just had to find Toothless and they could get out of there. He picked a direction, hoped for the best and began running again. Moments later he spotted toothless’ footprints running along the wagon tracks. He grinned as he ran along beside them, but it was short lived. the absence of adult whispering deaths at their nesting grounds was not encouraging. It likely meant they had gone after toothless. Normally a whispering death would be no competition for toothless. A single death likely wouldn’t even attempt an attack, but there had been at least three. If angry enough they could prove too much for the flightless dragon to handle. He just hoped he could find toothless in time to be of help.

Hiccup slowed as his vision began to spin. He put a hand to his head, breathing heavily. Had he overdone it with running so much right after hitting his head? He slowed to a shaky walk, but even that seemed to be too much. Maybe he should just take a moment to rest and… Then everything went black.

  


* * *

  


The whispering deaths chased Toothless for a considerable amount of time before he noticed one was missing. He didn’t know when the third had stopped chasing him, but there was little doubt where it had gone. He let out a resigned groan as he changed his course. He had no idea how Hiccup was doing, if the teen had regained consciousness or remained at the base of the cliff wall. The thought of the whispering death arriving back there and finding the viking completely defenceless had toothless running faster than he thought possible in his exhausted state.

He arrived back at the cliff several minutes before the other two whispering deaths, but was quickly greeted by the third. He growled as it threw a wave of flames in his direction, not even allowing him to step into the rocky area. He attempted to run around the death and approach from the side, but it was determined that he was not making it anywhere near the cliff. He considered running around the other direction, but at that point the other two arrived. While the first effectively kept him from entering the area, the other two made swooping passes at him, breathing fire and snarling, until toothless was forced to retreat back to the trees.

Toothless huffed and began pacing along the tree line, trying to get a better view of the area he and Hiccup had crashed into. It was just too far to tell if Hiccup was still there, and one of the deaths was shadowing him from just beyond the trees. Toothless sat and glared at the whispering death a moment, the tip of his tail flicking up and down like a tapping foot. Then his eyes wandered to the top of the cliff. He promptly stood and ran back into the trees. If the deaths wouldn’t let him into the area to check for Hiccup, then he would just have to find a way up the cliff and check from above.

  


* * *

  


_“… we have..”_

_“….. those dragons?”_

Hiccup was suddenly aware of someone touching his shoulder. He mentally flinched at the unexpected contact, but knew he hadn’t moved at all. Despite his attempts to focus he only managed to catch bits and pieces of a conversation.

_“… getting worse…”_

He strained to hear more as his world seemed to spin and everything began to feel fuzzy. What were they talking about? What about dragons? Who was getting worse?

_“….. wisp..”_

Hiccup felt himself being lifted a moment before he lost his tenuous grasp on awareness.

  


* * *

  


 

The first thing he became aware of was a light weight against his chest. He felt his hand twitch involuntarily. wait, that was fabric. He was on a bed? Then the weight was likely a blanket. Hiccup frowned slightly as he tried to open his eyes, and wound up squinting against the bright light pouring into the room. He blinked rapidly, waiting for his eyes to adjust and tried focusing on the white ceiling. White? No one in the village had a white painted ceiling. To begin with, no one in the village had painted their ceiling. They were all just the basic wood and rafters. Then he remembered the day before. He propped himself up on one elbow, as panic began to take hold. Where was he?

The room he was in seemed to be a simple bedroom. Basic bed next to a window, Dresser on one side of the door and a chair on the other. Then he noticed a small girl sitting on the floor looking up at him. She seemed to be about 6 years old, with her hair in large blonde pig-tails. She was holding two dolls in her hands and had several others surrounding her on the floor. She set her dolls down and smiled up at him. Hiccup gave her a slight grin in return and pushed himself up to sit in the bed. She let out a tiny giggle, then opened her mouth as though to speak. Hiccup frowned in confusion as she paused, then recoiled as she yelled at what he hoped was the top of her lungs, “GRAMPA! HE’S AWAKE!!!” Thor help her enemies if her voice could go any louder.

A man appeared in the door to the room, pipe in hand. He appeared to be in his mid fifties with greying hair and a matching moustache. “Well, don’t scream at the boy, Sylvie.” He said.

She grinned at Hiccup again before going over to the older man. The man smiled and patted her on the shoulder. “Sweetie, I’ve just set some tea to steep. It’s probably done by now, why don’t you go fetch some for all of us?” The little girl smiled back before disappearing into the next room.

Hiccup frowned slightly as he realized there was something on his head. He raised his hand to touch the bandage encircling his head as the man moved into the room, pulling the chair along as he went. “Now then, how are you feeling young man?”

Hiccup turned to the man. “I’m alright,” he assured.

The man set the chair near the bed and sat with a groan. “Well now, it seems you’ve had a close encounter with our local dragons. Got a pretty nasty scrape on the back of your head there,” he said. “We found you out in the woods and brought you back into town. Oh, but here I go getting ahead of myself,” he cleared his throat and held out a hand to Hiccup. “My name is Daniel Ortega. And they tell me I’m the Mayor around here.”

Hiccup grinned with a soft chuckle and shook the man’s hand, “Hiccup Haddock,” he replied.

“Well now, that’s an interesting name,” Daniel commented. “You’re not from around here are you?”

“It would seem not.” Just how far had they gone off course. He had never heard of a viking with a name like Daniel, or of a family with the last name Ortega. And for that matter. What was a mayor? “I actually got lost travelling with…” he paused unsure of what all he should tell this man. Given the events of the day before and what Daniel had told him so far, it was obvious he was familiar with dragons. But Hiccup had no idea what his history with dragons was. It might be unwise to reveal his friendship with toothless. “… traveling with a friend of mine.”

Daniel turned his head as Sylvie returned carrying a small tray. She lifted the tray towards Hiccup and he realized two were filled with tea and one was juice. “Thanks,” he said as he took a cup of tea.

“I see.” He nodded to his granddaughter as he took a cup of tea. “Well lad, welcome to Burgess. Small, humble little farming and forestry town.” He smiled warmly, obviously fond of his home.

Hiccup couldn’t help smiling back. “I’m sorry, I’m not actually familiar with it.”

“Oh,” the man said before giving a shrug, “fair enough. As I said, pretty small and all that. But where do you hail from, Mr Haddock?”

“Berk. it’s… A fishing village.” Hiccup spotted Sylvie inhaling her juice in one go.

“I can’t say I am familiar with that one myself.” Daniel said pulling from his pipe. “Along the coast, I would guess?”

“You could say that.” Hiccup said before drinking some of his tea, hoping the man wouldn’t ask too much more on the topic. He was still unsure of where he was or how far they had travelled, vague may be best in this instance. That and finding toothless and leaving as soon as possible.

Daniel drank some of his tea as well, “Seems you’ve travelled quite some distance then. Takes the better part of a day to get to the coast from here.” He took another puff from his pipe. “Hmm, the nearest coastal town would likely be Ancaster. Probably your best bet at finding someone familiar with your home town.”

It wasn’t exactly getting away from the topic, but it was certainly helpful. “And how would you get there from here?” Hiccup asked.

“Best way to get to Ancaster is to simply follow the river. There’s actually a fairly established road just west of town. Runs parallel to the river, all the way to the coast.”

Hiccup finished the last of his tea. “Thank you for your help and the information, Mr. Ortega, but I really think I should go out looking for my friend.” Hiccup swung his legs over the edge of the bed, and noticed his boot sitting at the base of the headboard. “I’m concerned he may be injured. At the very least he’s probably worried about me.”

“Now, that I can’t allow young man.” The village elder stood. “Not without an escort. Can’t have you getting injured or lost again.”

“Unfortunately all of my men are currently busy with their various responsibilities.” Daniel continued before Hiccup could object. “You’ll have to wait until one of them is done for the day. Sadly I’m out of time to stay and chat any longer, duty calls, and all that.” He leaned down and looked to the young girl. “Sweetie, why don’t you show Mr. Haddock around the village.” He patted her head. “I understand theres a water fight going at the Overland house this afternoon.”

Hiccup pulled his boot on and rose to follow the two out of the house.

  


* * *

  


The small girl dragged Hiccup up one street and down another till they came to a small house sitting on a corner at the edge of the town. The yard behind the house took up almost as much space as the house itself. It was comprised of a large open area with a line of trees and a shed along the far edge of the property. The yard was currently swarming with children, running back and forth between the yard and the street and attacking each other with buckets of water.

Sylvie broke away and ran ahead of Hiccup and into the yard. Somehow she managed to avoid getting water dumped on her and ran into a circle of larger buckets in the centre of the yard. Once inside the yard she seemed to relax a bit and approached an older boy, who, for some reason, wasn’t wearing any shoes. Hiccup shrugged it off as him not wanting them to get wet. No one in the circle seemed to be attacking anyone else with water. It was likely a neutral area, so Hiccup tried to get into the area as quickly as he could.

By the time Hiccup managed to get into the circle, thankfully without getting soaked, Sylvie was whispering to the brown haired teen. It seemed like a safe assumption that he was in charge of the group. He seemed to be older than all the others by at least five years. He was likely older than Hiccup even.

The older teen smiled at the small girl as Hiccup approached them, “Sure, your friend can join in. What’s his name?” The boy frowned slightly while listening to her. “Mr… Haddock?” His face broke into a grin and he barely managed to conceal a chuckle, before nodding to Sylvie. “Alright, do you remember the rules?” He asked, picking up a bucket of water to hand her. She nodded excitedly while snatching away her amo. “Good, do you think you can explain….” He trailed off, as Sylvie ran off in search of other children to soak. “….them to Mr. Haddock.”

Hiccup snickered, and the older teen laughed as well, before turning to him. “You get used to that. It’s a miracle they hear anything I say.” He grinned and extended his hand to Hiccup. “Jack Overland.”

Hiccup accepted the handshake, “Hiccup.”

Jack raised an eyebrow slightly, “Hiccup Haddock?”

Hiccup nodded. “Viking name,” he stated, expecting that to explain everything. Jack frowned in confusion. Obviously it didn’t explain anything. “Viking parents believe a hideous name will frighten off gnomes and trolls. I’m not sure how many people actually believe that,” he admitted with a shrug, “but it’s become a bit of a tradition.”

“interesting tradition. Still not the strangest one I’ve heard though,” Jack replied, “So you’re a viking?”

Hiccup nodded while looking around at the large square buildings in the area. “And apparently your not,” he thought out loud wondering once again how far off course they had gone.

“should I be?” Jack questioned as a smirk pulled at his lips.

Hiccup floundered as he realized how odd the statement sounded. “No! … I mean-“

Jack laughed lightly at him tripping on his words, and Hiccup’s face broke out into a grin. “Yea,” he said with a chuckle, “that was an odd thing to say. but everyone in the area I’m from is a viking. Obviously I’m a lot farther from home than I thought.”

“How did that happen?”

“… A friend and I were traveling. We… Got pretty lost.” Hiccup looked a few blocks away to the edge of the town. “My friend is still lost somewhere. the mayor asked me to wait until he finds someone to help search.”

Hiccup scanned the tree line at the edge of town, hoping for some sign of toothless. As a result he missed Jack’s slightly conflicted expression.

“Well, since your stuck waiting anyways, welcome to the last water war of the season, Hiccup.” He grinned crookedly, “so you know, if you try and sit it out the kids will likely attack you anyways. To give you a basic run down. The area we’re in is the reloading station. You run in with the smaller buckets and refill them from larger ones. There’s no attacking each other in the reloading station, and your only allowed to stay in the reloading station for a short amount of time. Also, if anybody is chasing someone smaller than them and the smaller kid starts to panic or cry you have to stop chasing them. That’s pretty much everyone in our cases

“So that’s basically it.” Jack told him, picking up a bucket and starting out of the safe area. He paused at the edge of the circle and spun around briefly “Oh, and I should warn you. As the two oldest people here, we’re basically walking targets.” Jack grinned, “Good luck,” he shouted to Hiccup, then ran out of the safe area.

Hiccup looked down at a bucket full of water. He really needed to find toothless. He had no idea where toothless was or if he was even alright. the dragon was probably fine, but he couldn’t help the small paranoid feeling that he might not be. Also, they needed to get back home soon. His father was probably throwing a fit wondering where he had run off to this time. He sighed. He really should try and avoid causing trouble with the Town’s Mayor as well. There was no guarantee that he would be able to find toothless that day. As a worst case scenario he needed to be able to come back to the town, and that wouldn’t be an option if he went against the man’s wishes. He was pulled from his thoughts by a small boy beside him dunking an empty bucket into one of the larger ones. The child pulled the bucket out with a grin. He paused as he passed Hiccup and looked up at the viking. He stared at the teen a moment, then shoved the bucket into Hiccup’s hands. The child grinned again, grabbed another bucket from the ground and ran off. Hiccup smiled. Well, it seemed he was stuck waiting anyways, he thought as he left the safe zone.

  


* * *

  


Jack laughed as he watched three kids run at Hiccup. The first tossed water to the right of the younger teen. Hiccup barely dodged the water thrown at him by the second, but then backed right into a torrent of water thrown at him by the third. Jack wiped water off his face, as his hair dripped from the children’s most recent ambush.

Jack looked around, scanning the area and doing a quick headcount of all the kids. Then he spotted Cole. The little seven year old was off across the street, sitting facing away from everyone else, with an empty overturned bucket lying beside him. Jack frowned with concern as he moved towards the boy. His first thought was that Cole had fallen and hurt himself. As he approached he quickly looked the child over. He didn’t seem injured, but he did seem to be crying.

Jack set his bucket on the ground, then sat down next to the child. “Hey squirt, you doing ok?”

Cole let out a tiny sniffle, and took a shaky breath.

Jack leaned forward a bit, trying to make eye contact with the boy, “Everyone's having a lot of fun. Why aren’t you playing with them?”

The child looked over at Jack with wide tear filled eyes, and sniffled again before wiping his face with his sleeve. “Jessica called me a crybaby,” he finally managed.

Jack felt himself deflate slightly. He had thought something like this might happen. Jessica wasn’t a mean girl, she was actually Cole’s older sister. She was five years older, and As the oldest of three children she had never been subjected to an older sibling. with the second oldest in her family only a little younger than her, she seemed to think both her siblings should be as resilient as she was.

“It’s ok, kiddo. Everyone gets a little scared now and then, that’s why we have that rule.” Jack stood up as cole wiped at his eyes again, then stood as well. “Tell you what, I’ll take care of things with Jessica,” he said. Then handed Cole his still full bucket of water. “Why don’t you go dump that on somebody’s head? It’ll make you feel better.”

“Jessica,” he called out to a girl running towards the loading area. She turned to look at him. “You have a time out,” he informed her.

“I stopped chasing him when he started crying,” she argued.

“Yea, but you called him a crybaby.”

“Because he is,” she retorted. “He…”

I DON’T…” He raised his voice at first, effectively cutting her off. “… care about your reasons. We’re not going to allow name calling”

The young girl scowled and stomped a foot before storming off to the reloading station to wait till she was free to participate again. After a while Jessica got bored and began helping the other children fill their smaller buckets. Jack turned just in time to see cole dump a bucket of water over his older brother, Adam’s shoulders. The boy let out a yip of shock and cole ran off giggling. Jack smiled seeing the child enjoying himself again. Right up until a bucket of water was dumped over his head and he let out a similar shout.

Hiccup laughed as he ran out into the street carrying his now empty bucket. Jack grinned as he ran into the circle snatched up a bucket and took off after the viking. Oh, It was on now.

A short while later and Jessica was turned loose with the other children, and the battle raged, till the water in the larger buckets ran low and a stream of parents began their return to the town for a mid day break. Jack’s mother was among them and she took Sylvie and Jack’s younger sister, emily, into their house. Slowly the number of children began to dwindle, until the last one was headed home with his mother. the child clinging onto the side of her dress brought a smile to his face as he picked up a bucket. Without any actual conscious thought on it Hiccup has started gathering up scattered buckets and dumping half full tubs alongside the older teen.

Jack looked to the road as he added another bucket to his stack, “Ahh, Mr. Ortega,” Jack set the stack down.

Hiccup looked to the street to see the man approaching while pulling his pipe from his mouth. “So, you are both here. I was afraid I’d have to hunt you down.”

“Anything planned for the afternoon?” Jack asked.

“Nothing official,” the older man told him, coming to stand next to the two of them. He nodded to Jack, “Is it safe to assume you’ve introduced yourself to Mr. Haddock?”

Jack nodded.

“Excellent, excellent.” Daniel turned to Hiccup, “ by now, your likely rather anxious to start looking for your friend.”

“Very,” Hiccup agreed, relieved that he could finally search for toothless

“Mr. Haddock has informed me that he and a comrade of his got lost yesterday.”

Jack nodded again, “he was telling me about that. Also said you wanted someone to help in searching for him. “

The mayor nodded, “that’s correct. The others are still busy with their daily tasks, could you escort Mr. Haddock in his search for his friend?”

Jack nodded in agreement, “I thought you might ask me to.”

“I would Check the area around the dragon’s nesting grounds first…”

Hiccup listened as Daniel gave Jack input on where they should look. He knew he should have been paying closer attention but couldn’t help wondering. If Jack had known he would be involved in searching, why had they spent so much time having a water fight with the group of children.

“...but DON’T get too close to those dragons. We don’t need a repeat of last time,” he grumbled, heading towards the house to collect his granddaughter.

“Last time?” Hiccup inquired.

“the last time we got too close to the nest several horses got spooked. We wound up losing them for a few days,” Jack explained. “The whispering deaths seem to have gotten more aggressive recently. we’re not sure why, but we’ve learned to try and avoid them for the most part.”

That was odd. Dragons didn’t usually get more aggressive for no reason. Was it a new nesting area? Maybe they had new eggs.

He was pulled from his thoughts as Jack continued. “But, I think it would be best if we walked anyways. We’ll be less likely to miss signs of your friend.” Jack moved over to the trees and retrieved a large hook ended staff along with a pair of shoes. “First things first, though, we probably shouldn’t be wandering around the forest in wet clothes.”

Jack led Hiccup into the house. He offered the younger teen a dry pair of clothes. They were a bit large for the viking, but they would work for the afternoon. they collected their and Emily’s wet clothes to hang outside to dry, then they were headed for the door.

“Jackson?” They heard a woman’s voice call from further inside the house.

“So close,” Jack muttered, his hand mere inches from the doorknob. “yeah mom?” Jack yelled back before letting his head fall forwards.

“Where are your shoes?”

He glared up at the offending footwear hanging from his staff. “I’ve got them,” he replied.

“Are they on your feet?” She asked.

Jack bit the inside of his mouth and scowled, “… No,” he admitted.

“Put them on.”

Jack softly let out a resigned sigh. “alright,” he shouted back, before pulling the shoes from the shepherds crook and onto his feet.

As he reached for the door a second time his mother called, “Be careful.”

Hiccup chuckled, “it’s like she has a sixth sense.”

Jack grinned over his shoulder at the viking. “I call it motherhood,” he muttered before dutifully responding, “We will.” Then he pushed the door open before his mother could stop them again. “So what’s your friends name, anyways?” Jack asked as he moved to set the clothes on a line.

“Uhh,” Hiccup wasn’t sure what else to go with. “Toothless.”

Jack grinned and glanced at Hiccup as he finished with the clothes, “Another viking name?”

“Sort of…” Hiccup found himself grinning as well. The older teen certainly was quick to smile. It wasn’t a bad thing though, it was an infectious smile. He still wasn’t sure when or if he should mention that his friend was a dragon. Hiccup thought it might be best to change the topic. “So,” Hiccup started as they left the yard, “you mentioned before that you thought the mayor would ask you to help me.”

Jack nodded slight. He already suspected where this conversation was going.

“So… Why did we stay at the water fight?”

Jacks grin turned somewhat sheepish, “sorry about that. I knew when you said Daniel wanted someone to help you search that he would probably ask me. The problem is, I _couldn’t_ leave the water fight. I actually do odd jobs around town for the mayor. The whole thing with the kids is part of it, although you’d never guess it. It’s pretty much a glorified babysitting service, But I have other responsibilities too. Theres a couple of others watching more kids around town as well.

Hiccup smiled, it made sense. He kind of wished he had known sooner though.

“How about you? You have any jobs in your village?” Jack asked him as they left the town.

“I- uhh…” Hiccup stared at the ground, trying to think of what to say. “I.. work.. with animals.”

“like.. work animals.. pets..?” He prodded trying to get Hiccup to open up bit more.

Hiccup frowned slightly, “a bit of both actually,” he said, surprised by the truth in the statement.

Jack chuckled at Hiccup's sudden realization. He was enjoying the younger teens company. Even if Hiccup claiming to be a viking had thrown him off. everything he had ever heard of vikings suggested they were blood thirsty murderers and thieves, but The thin friendly young man walking beside him seemed far from dangerous. If anything, Jack would describe him as curious and maybe a bit naïve.

Jack spun around but still kept pace with Hiccup by walking backwards. He scanned the edge of the village, then turned back around lifted his foot and pulled off a shoe. Hiccup slowed as Jack hopped from one foot to the other, pulling the other shoe off as well. He straightened with a triumphant grin, tied the laces together and slung them over the shepherds crook again before leaning the staff against his shoulder.And just as quickly they resumed their original pace. “Don’t care for shoes much?” Hiccup asked.

Jack shrugged, “I don’t really see the need for them most times. It feels more…” he paused a moment, searching for an adequate way to explain, “… natural this way.”

“Your feet don’t get sore? Or cold?”

“Nah. it’s not even that cold yet. I’ll take advantage of the nice weather before it snows. And As long as I don’t go running over gravel or…”

Jack trailed off and the two teens looked to the side as they heard a branch snap in the trees beside the road. There was sudden blur of movement, then there was a dragon running at them. Jack stumbled back from shock as the dragon stopped mere feet from them and let out a low rumble. Jack recovered his footing and raised his staff just as the dragon started to prance in one spot and Hiccup exclaimed, “Toothless!”

“What?” Jack frowned as he suddenly realized what Hiccup had said. The dragons eyes fell on his raised weapon and it started to growl. Jacks breath caught in his throat as the dragon went from happy one moment, to terrifying the next. ears went back, eyes narrowed, and it bared it’s teeth with a snarl.

Hiccup’s eyes widened and he put himself between Jack and the dragon. “WHOA! Whoa, whoa!” He exclaimed facing the dragon. Hiccup put his hand on the end of Jacks staff and attempted to push it down. Jack hesitated a moment, but allowed the end to be lower to the ground. “Take it easy, bud,” Hiccup told toothless. then He turned his body and motioned to the other teen. “This is Jack. He’s a friend.”

With a blink the dragon’s eyes went back to normal and it’s ears came back up. Then it looked at Hiccup, chirped and began to practically vibrate with excitement. Hiccup placed a hand on the dragons head. “Aww, I was worried about you too, bud.”

Jack finally managed to get over his shock and find his voice. “Wa-WAIT! Your friend is a dragon!?!”

Hiccup turned with a cringe and gave Jack an apologetic look. “Sorry, I wasn’t sure how…” he trailed off as toothless sniffed the air and began moving past him towards Jack. “Toothless?” He inquired with a hesitant tone. “What are you doing?”

Jack back peddled as the dragon approached. He stumbled slightly and his breath hitched as the the dragon closed the distance between them.

“Toothless, don’t!” Hiccup yelled.

Jack went ridged as Toothless suddenly licked his face. Well, that was new.

Hiccup’s hand connected with his forehead. “Toothless!” He groaned. “You _know_ that doesn’t wash out.”

Jack still hadn’t figured out how to react to the situation, when the dragon started licking his face again. Jack let out a strangled shout and tried to push the dragon away.

“T-toothless!” Hiccup rushed forward and pushed the dragons head to the side. “Would you stop!”

Jack was chuckling now. He tried to wipe the saliva away from his face and shirt. “Wash out?” He questioned, regarding the clear slime.

Hiccup sighed. “fish smell,” He explained, with a tone that suggested he had been through this many times.

“Eww,” Jack tried to shake the spit off his hands. He paused as it finally sank in. he had just been licked by a dragon. He laughed slightly. well, that was something he never thought would happen in his lifetime.

“Sorry. I really should have told you about toothless,” Hiccup said. “With the people in your town having issues with other dragons I wasn’t sure how you would react to me riding a dragon.”

Jack froze in the middle of trying to wipe his arm off. “Wait… Ride?” He stared in bewilderment at the set up on toothless’ back. “That’s a saddle?”

Hiccup chuckled softly and nodded. “It was a lot more difficult without, so I made one.”

“You made it?”

“I’ve been working in a blacksmith forge since I was small,” Hiccup paused a moment, “well, smaller. My dad seemed to think it would help me to build some muscle.” Hiccup rolled his eyes and mockingly flexed an arm, “I sure showed him.”

Jack chuckled. This had turned into a very interesting day. Here he was talking to a dragon riding blacksmith. It was the sort of thing you only heard about in stories. And it was probably the most interesting thing that would ever happen to him.

Hiccup turned to toothless. “What do you think bud? Should we figure out where we are?" he looked back at Jack. “ if we follow the river we’ll get to Ancaster, right?”

Jack nodded.

“Did you want to come with us,” Hiccup asked. “We have to come back for my clothes anyways.”

Jack found himself gapping at the other teen, “you mean.. flying?”

Hiccup smiled and nodded. Jack’s face broke into a grin as well, before he reigned himself in. “But, can the saddle fit two riders?”

Hiccup nodded. “We’ve had other passengers before,” Hiccup said while jumping into the saddle.

Jack approached the dragon and paused a moment as he took a steadying breath. If he didn’t do this, he knew he would regret it later. He climbed onto the dragon and tried to settle himself into the saddle. Well, it seemed as sturdy as a horse’s saddle at least. But somehow knowing what came next made this seem less secure.

“You good?” Hiccup asked over his shoulder.

Jack gave a nervous nod. he would later deny that he let out a little yelp as the dragon took to the sky.


End file.
